I was first introduced to The Next Web during the plagiarism fiasco from a few months back, which I wrote about in my post from quite a while ago titled Credibility and Bullies with Blogs. In that article, I briefly conveyed the lasting impression the whole affair left on my mind regarding The Next Web: “I have associated The Next Web with plagiarism, rash outbursts, and poor choices.” As I said in that article, to this day I refuse to read articles on The Next Web.

My first real introduction to The Verge happened a few weeks later, when Josh Topolsky responded to accusations from John Gruber and Marco Arment that The Verge’s staff was pulling their punches when reviewing products designed nearly identically to that of Apple’s equivalents. I use “equivalents” very loosely here. I had certainly heard of The Verge before then, but that event served as my formal introduction to the site, and also established a general dislike of Josh Topolsky.

Unlike in the case of Josh Topolsky and The Verge, I did not overcome my first impression of The Next Web: to this day I refuse to read any articles posted to the site. Maybe I’m the one losing here. Maybe I would benefit from reading the articles posted on The Next Web. But we have to draw the line somewhere, and this is where I choose to draw mine.